OUR VIEW - WESTPORT SCHOOLS

Tuesday

May 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Article 4, the $32.7 million fiscal year 2015 operating budget for Westport, was passed overwhelmingly at the recent annual Town Meeting. It included a $16,013,898 FY15 budget for the Westport Community Schools, which every informed voter knew was inadequate to get the job done properly. With eight layoffs looming in a school system already operating at minimum staffing levels, the impact of below level services funding would be severe for the school district.

Article 4, the $32.7 million fiscal year 2015 operating budget for Westport, was passed overwhelmingly at the recent annual Town Meeting. It included a $16,013,898 FY15 budget for the Westport Community Schools, which every informed voter knew was inadequate to get the job done properly. With eight layoffs looming in a school system already operating at minimum staffing levels, the impact of below level services funding would be severe for the school district.

We applaud the Westport Finance Committee for having the courage to endorse an additional $815,145 to help the school system maintain level services, contingent upon the passage of a Proposition 2½ override by the rest of the town's voters.

We also applaud special education teacher Melissa Maltais Avila for her reasoned argument in favor of the additional spending, and all the parents and school staffers who stood with her, and to all the residents who voted in favor of a second try at an override.

What is more valuable than the education of your children, and your neighbor's children, and the students who live on the other side of town? Westport spends $2,000 less per pupil than the state average. That is nothing to be proud of as a community.

Without a positive override vote, staffers will be cut, "non-critical" programs and services will be trimmed, and/or fees will likely rise once again for bus transportation, for sports programs, for extra curricular activities. One way or another, the parents will pay.

But that's not the way things are supposed to be in a community, where neighbors help neighbors do things, like give the town's schoolchildren the best education possible. Everybody is supposed to pay their fair share of what is needed, and the schools need help.

If the community gets out and campaigns hard, an override effort could be successful. Not easy, but possible. If it fails, Westport should find some other place to cut budgets, and trim operating costs.

Nothing should be more important than giving every child in Westport the opportunity to get a great education in the public schools. They will be tomorrow's doctors, educators, public officials, and taxpayers...

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